Usually we put an adjective that gives an opinion in front of an adjective that is descriptive. If so, why is "He was wearing his thick ugly brown sweater.", considered correct? If I say, " He was wearing his ugly thick brown sweater.", am I making a mistake?
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1It would depend on whether the thickness contributed to the ugliness, or if it was only the shade of brown that was ugly.– TimRCommented Jul 21, 2015 at 19:29
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1There is a so-called default order to the types of attributive adjective modifiers w.r.t. linear order. And that's probably what you are asking about. But that default order applies when there are no other considerations involved. Context will often easily override that so-called default order. For example, consider: A: "He was wearing his ugly brown sweater." B: "Which one? His thick one or his thin one?" A: "His thick ugly brown sweater." B:"Ah, yes. His thick ugly brown sweater is much uglier than his thin ugly brown sweater." :D– F.E.Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 1:15
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3 Answers
To me as a native US English speaker, they both sound about the same, and equally correct. They may convey slightly different shades of meaning.
Note that commas are used between adjectives when the order can be changed without changing the meaning:
He was wearing his thick, ugly, brown sweater.
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I love when someone points out that punctuation might actually improve a sentence. +1– Ast PaceCommented Jul 21, 2015 at 20:32
I am not a native speaker. I will go for the adjectives order as I have read in Grammar i.e. observation + size + color. So the correct sentence is:
He was wearing his ugly thick brown sweater.
I'm going to have to suggest that it depends.
Specifically, it depends on which aspect of the sweater is important to the speaker, or which aspect the speaker thinks the listener would find important. The first adjective in a list is usually the one which the list-maker considers most important.
"Thick, ugly, brown sweater" could be preferred if the speaker wants to emphasize that the sweater makes the wearer look bigger or bulkier (the emphasis is on the external, less personal aspect).
To choose "Ugly, thick, brown sweater" draws more attention to the speaker's opinion of the sweater. This would be important if the speaker wishes to subtly prejudice the reader against the wearer.
